


body in the bright grass

by theseourbodies



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Episode Related, Gen, Post-Episode: s07e19 Puka 'Ana (Exodus), long distance calling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-06
Updated: 2017-11-06
Packaged: 2019-01-30 07:04:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12648588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theseourbodies/pseuds/theseourbodies
Summary: Immediately post-episode 7.19Steve calls Danny at the end of a long case.





	body in the bright grass

**Author's Note:**

> This story contains **no** explicit references to sexual abuse, of a minor or otherwise. The episode-related events include the discovery of Kelsey, the young woman found in the basement of the house--I do not discuss her assault, only that she is bound.

Steve doesn’t let himself think much about anything until he’s made his way home and into one of the sunning chairs out back, still in his work clothes. He kicks off his boots and drags off his socks, sends a quick message to Kono, checking in, and then he finally lets himself call Danny. 

Danny picks up on the fifth ring, already talking; as usual when he’s with his family, he’s not talking to Steve right away. 

“—right back, but in the interest of full disclosure, you gotta know that I am deeply suspicious about your protestations of innocence. She cheats,” Danny says, conspiratorially; the last part is for Steve, who doesn’t—can’t—hold back a little laugh. 

“Bridgette?”

“No, her card shark daughter.” 

It’s Steve’s understanding that Sophie is only a little older than Charlie, but Steve’s played poker across from Danny, Grace, _and_ Clara, and he knows that it just runs in the Williams blood. “You know, I warned you about this, Danny, I told you that you have to be careful or karma’s gonna have you over a barrel. I _am_ pleasantly surprised that you’re not having a conniption about a little girl playing poker, though, good job.”

“Go Fish.”

“I’m sorry, ‘go fish’?”

“It’s not poker, you think I would teach any niece of mine the corrupting influence of gambling, what kind of man do you think I am. It’s Go Fish, and she’s scalping me.”

Steve settles back into the worn-soft wood of the beach chair and lets himself laugh at the simplicity of Danny’s fake outrage. Laughing feels good, feels nice; it breaks open some of the tension that Steve’s still carrying with him from the case. 

God, this hellish day. The memory of Kono’s focus and her fury is something Steve is going to carry with him for the rest of his life—his pride and genuine awe had struck him and followed him all during this day spent clearing the way for her and then letting her lead. But for both their sakes, he’s glad it’s over.

“That’s rough buddy, you gonna need me to stake you?”

“Do you actually know how go fish works, you shmuck, no. Though that’s a very nice trick, offering to stake me when there’s no physical way to do so when I am here, and you are all the way back home, literally thousands of miles away. Very clever.” 

“I’m offended, Danny, really honestly offended that you would think me capable of this kind of trickery.”

“I just bet you are,” Danny mutters, less irritable than irritably fond, Steve knows. “So, what do I owe the pleasure of this call?”

It takes Steve a moment to answer, and for once Danny waits him out. They do this when Danny’s gone, usually, little catch-up calls at the end of Danny’s day, but he already knows that this is different, that it has to be different. Steve doesn’t really want to tell Danny about this case, about all the human horror that Kono burned against so brightly. 

“Been a long day, partner.”

Danny hums. “Chin called a little earlier to give me an update,” he says softly. 

Steve lets out a shaking breath, and, not for the first time, wonders what good he’s done in the world to deserve Chin Ho Kelly. “So, you know it was bad.”

“I know it was _terrible_ , babe. I’m sorry I wasn’t there.”

Steve had wanted Danny there with him so badly after they had found Kelsey—that little girl bound up in that terrible, echoing house, and left to starve—that it had been a physical effort not to call him right in the hospital outside her room. Steve had wanted him there to help Steve make sense of his own emotions, his rage and his grief, and something totally indefinable that had made his chest just ache. To help Steve talk to Kono, and to tell them both they were going to get this son of a bitch. But Steve had found the words that Kono needed to hear waiting for him when he had looked, and he keenly remembers the feeling of sick gratitude that Danny wasn’t there in that house when they had found Kelsey—no, as much as Steve had wanted Danny there with them, he hadn’t needed him, and he wasn’t sorry that Danny had been gone. 

“Trust me, Danny, I’m glad you weren’t,” Steve says softly, tipping his head back and rubbing at his eyes with his free hand. Exhaustion was sneaking up on him in long waves, weighing on his body, but sleep wasn’t going to be easy tonight. “This case, man. This one was bad for all of us, but it hit Kono hardest.” All Steve had been able to do for her was keep moving and give her some of his own hard-won wisdom to make sure the fire inside her didn’t burn her up and take her to a place she couldn’t recover from. “I’ve never seen her that intense, Danny, that focused. She was—it was incredible. You woulda been proud of her; I know I was, for damn sure.”

There’s a scuffing sound on the other side of the phone, the creak-snick of a door shutting just audible for a moment, and then little settling sounds like Danny had just sat somewhere and got comfortable. Steve’s own body responds instinctively, his back relaxing into the beach chair a vital increment more. As usual, he doesn’t dwell on this reaction. 

Chuffing out a little laugh, Danny says, “I am proud, believe me. I shouldn’t be, maybe, because it’s not like any of us can take much credit for the bones of who she is, but I really am.” 

Yeah, Steve knows that feeling very well, and he finds himself smiling at nothing for a second. “Me too, man. It’s all I’ve been able to focus on that isn’t just—” _heartbreaking_ “—really rough.”

“Yeah, I hear that. You home now? Taking the rest of the day?”

“We all are, yeah. I asked Chin and Grover to act as on-call; if it’s something big they’ll get Kono and I, but she needs to go home to Adam and to get a good couple hours of cool-down, and I just….I think I just need to sleep.”

Danny chuckles. “Nothing wrong with that. A good nap never hurt anybody.” 

He pauses for a while after that, and they both just share each other’s breathing over the phone. Steve lets the ocean noise roll over him like the physical tide and thinks about maybe getting up to get a beer for a long second—but he needs this stillness like he needs Danny’s voice on the phone right now, so he stays put. 

At length, Danny says quietly, “You know, when I was with Newark PD, after the cases with the kids sometimes the best thing for me was to get home to my little girl. Think about going to see Nahele, maybe, or grab Grace. Hell, get them both, but just go out and do something with them. Just—Just go see them. It’ll help.” 

“I’ll think about that, I will. Thanks, Danny.”

Steve doesn’t ask if there were any cases like this, because there’s no way to phrase it to keep him from sounding like a prick. He’d be asking for the wrong reasons anyway—still, it’s hard not to think about how much better it would make him feel to know that Danny had been through this and came out sane (or no more insane, anyway) and not permanently marked by the whole experience. But asking wouldn’t do anything but bring up bad memories for Danny, and anyway Steve suspects that Danny can only confirm what Steve already suspects—that this is one of those cases that he isn’t going to be able to forget. 

Maybe that’s for the best, but in the present moment it still makes Steve feel a little sick. 

“Keep it in mind, is all I’m saying. You think I should call Kono, huh, check on her? How was she when you guys closed the case?” 

Bloody but calming even as he watched, a stubborn tilt to her chin when she looked at him that reminded him so much of Chin it almost killed him. She’d been waiting for him to challenge her, but Steve figures that was mostly leftover adrenaline—Kono had to know, _has to_ know, that Steve isn’t going to be the leader that challenges his team’s decisions or declarations in the field. If he had a knife, he had a knife; not believing Kono hadn’t even been something to consider. 

“I think that’d be good, partner, but give it a day, would ya? I think this is a new level for Kono, I think she might need to figure out how she’s feeling about it before she can talk to anyone.”

Danny grins; Steve can hear it in his voice when he says, easily, “That’s very insightful, babe. I’ll do that, I’ll let her settle.”

“Try not to worry?”

“I will do my best, but no promises.”

“That’s all I can ask for, buddy.”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it. Hey, I’m about to say something emotional so don’t hang up—”

Steve snorts, interested despite himself in where this is going.

“—but you can ask for more if you need it. You want to talk to me about this case and you can Steve. I know you’ve had cases with children before, we all have, but I know I’m feeling a certain way about this right now, and I wasn’t even there to see any of it. You gotta talk, you can talk to me.”

It’s that same sensation of _want you here_ from earlier that smacks Steve in the chest just then, and for a second he can only rest with his hand over his eyes and breathe in the ocean air. Talking over the phone always makes it seem scarily easy to say more than he should; the comfort of knowing Danny can’t see him when Steve’s talking has always been immense, mildly embarrassing, relief. He scrubs a hand back through his hair, scratches behind his ear; tries to stall while he decides, if anything, what he wants to say. 

“Steve?”

“I’m not doing great, Danny, but it’s better. You don’t want to hear about this case, trust me. For today, I just want to be…. Done with it, I think. You should call Kono tomorrow, and I’ll call you, probably. But this was good for me. This is what I needed, just now.”

Danny and the ocean, Kono safe at home, Chin Ho Kelly and Lou Grover keeping watch over their interests for now. It’s the most at ease Steve’s felt all day; right now, that’s all he needs. 

“That’s very fair, I can understand that. You want I should stay on the line for a while, or you ready for a nap.”

“Keep calling it a nap and we might have issues,” Steve says, grinning. “And I think I’ll be good from here, Danno.”

“Yes, well, I call it like I see it, _Steven._ Come on, stop playing in the sand and get some sleep for a few hours at least.” 

Steve gets up and grabs for his boots and socks, getting caught up in the easy ebb and flow of Danny just being Danny. He makes it all the way inside—as stealthily as possible, of course, so Danny can’t tell how easily Steve followed his orders—when Danny finally breaks off.

“Listen, the kids have to head to bed, and I told Bridgette I would handle bedtime. Are you sure you’re ok?” 

Steve locks the last of his exterior doors and sets the alarm without much thought, biting back a yawn. 

“Yeah, D, I’m fine.” 

“….You will be, yeah,” Danny says quietly, in a different tone than Steve’s heard from him today—there’s a kindness in it that’s almost foreign in Danny’s voice, something soft. Steve’s own breath catches, and he spares a moment to hope it wasn’t audible. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Nap well.”

“Bye Danny.” _I love you, thank you._

“Sleep, Steven.” _I know, you’re welcome._

Steve hangs up, bites back another yawn, and troops upstairs; even with the barely-faded evening light coming through his windows, he thinks that sleep will be easier to reach now than he had thought.

**Author's Note:**

> I felt that there wasn't any additional commentary about Kono that I could add to the actual narrative of this episode, so I experimented with some Steve-as-observer/chronicler.
> 
> Find me at wecouldbeheroes-loverswecouldbe.tumblr.com for questions, comments, and content.
> 
> The title for this fic was taken from a piece of concept art by Jenny Holzer:
> 
> _BODIES LIE IN THE BRIGHT GRASS_  
>  AND SOME ARE MURDERED  
> AND SOME ARE PICNICKING 


End file.
